The Plot Against America

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Vintage.

The Plot Against America is a historical fiction novel set during the time leading up to and the first several years of the second World War. The twist is that, instead of being reelected in 1940, Roosevelt loses to Charles Lindbergh, an isolationist, and probably antisemetic.

It is narrated by Philip Roth himself as a boy of about nine, who (at least in the book) lived at that time in a Jewish neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. (I don’t know much about Roth’s life, and as such don’t know what liberties he took. The book is in written in the first person, though, and the main character is named Philip Roth. So there.) With Lindbergh in power and antisemitism on the rise, the life of the Roth family, hitherto relatively stable if not especially prosperous, undergoes several profound changes.

My first impression, several pages in, was along the lines of “oh boy, here comes a massive apologia for Israel”. Not so - Israel isn’t even mentioned. Roth’s father, an admirable character, believed very much in America, which, as a secular democracy, was the right thing to believe in. For all the people trying to make it so, the US isn’t a country based on religion or race. Israel is, and that’s my root problem with it. It should be yours, too.

The style of writing is odd. Mostly it sounds like a nine year old’s writing, with simple language and simple ideas. It reminded me of “young adult” literature, stuff I read when I was about that age. But every now and then Roth breaks out these long sentences with words no nine year old would know. Which isn’t a bad thing, but a bit strange nonetheless.

Worth reading, as it helps explain some of the motivations of today’s Jews, a people who collectively have a serious, yet largely self-inflicted, PR problem, especially outside the US, yet isn’t too heavy-handed about it.